Beginners Luck
by AFincorporated
Summary: Tyche, goddess of luck, has been kidnapped. And only one girl can save her: her daughter, Felix. There's a couple of problems with that. Felix hates her mom. And Felix is currently on the run for suspected murder, trying to take care of her two best friends at the same time. When she's tracked down by the campers, can she be talked into splitting apart her family to save the world?
1. Chapter 1

**AN: this is a story by F, not A (because this is a shared account). I don't own PJO or HoO. Please leave a review/follow/favorite.**

"I see your bet and raise it five billion kajillion." I said, trying not to break my poker face at the skeptical looks around the table. "Inside joke. I raise it twenty."

We went around the table again, and I glanced down at my cards. A winning hand. Like usual. I always win. "I raise your bet twenty."

"I fold." The bald man said, setting his cards down on the table and standing up. "I'm out of here." The woman after him folded as well. There was a couple other people at the table, but there was something about the boy sitting directly across from me, the boy with dark hair and sea green eyes, that seemed different. Maybe it was the way he grinned at me over his cards, or the tenseness in his shoulders that made it seem as though he was ready to leap up at any moment. But there was something about him that was different, but I didn't want to stick around to find out what it was.

I had a bad feeling about this. As soon as my turn came around, I set my cards on the table, upside down so that nobody saw my winning hand and got suspicious. "I fold too." I quickly stood up and turned away, walking quickly out of the back door of the casino. As I did, I held my breath and focused. I felt my power touching the security guards. As I passed, each one in turn started coughing or suddenly noticed something important in the other direction. I walked out the door labeled, "EMPLOYEES ONLY". I closed it behind me, breathing in the humid alley air.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the first thing I found. Shoving my fake ID back in my other pocket, I found my coin. It was a three-cent silver piece. Balancing it on the back of my thumb, I flipped it up three feet into the air, watching it glint in the streetlight's glow as it landed on my palm. "Heads I go home." I whispered as I caught the coin. I flipped it onto my wrist. Heads.

"Alright, then." I muttered, pushing my coin back into my pocket.

When I'm not sure about things, I use coin flips. They never lead me wrong. You see, I'm lucky. Really lucky. Luck just always turns in my favor, no matter what the situation. So if the coin said to go home? Then it was time to go home.

Besides, something about that boy with the green eyes was still bugging me. But I couldn't place it.

I zipped up my faded green hoodie and shoved my hands in the pockets, turning to the side and hurrying down the alley onto the street.

There weren't many people on the street. There was a lot of cars in front of the casino, but not many people. Probably all of the people were inside losing money in the middle of glowing signs and loud music. I almost pitied people without my luck-and I didn't understand why I wasn't like them. Not that I was complaining. I just didn't understand it. Being alone isn't a new thing for me.

Sometimes I wished I was a normal kid. But what would be the fun in that?

I took the long route home, leaving that night's winnings in the donations box at the first homeless shelter I passed. I never kept the money I won-dad and I could get by without the extra. Keeping it would just feel like stealing, so I left it to people who needed it.

After that, I walked through the tangle of city streets to downtown. Here the buildings were taller, almost poking the sky, and I had to cross the street to avoid a crowd of drunk college-age boys. Even at night, this city never slept. Cars honked and people shouted, helicopters buzzed overhead and a police siren rang somewhere in the distance.

I turned into an alley and scrambled up a fire escape, the cold damp metal turning my fingers numb. Dad and I lived in a small apartment on the tenth floor, so my breath was coming in short gasps by the time I reached my bedroom window.

I dug my fingernails under the window pane and pulled, and it lifted enough for me to push it up. I swung my legs inside and closed the window behind me as quietly as I could.

But not quietly enough.

"Felix? Can you come in here?" My dad's tired voice came from the kitchen. I crossed my fingers for good luck as I pushed the bedroom door open, trying to make it look like I had been asleep. "Felix, now."

Before you ask, by the way, my dad's name is Allister McMandy. Everyone calls him Al, though. He looks a lot like me-same sandy blond hair, brown eyes, round face, and kind features. But there's always bags under his eyes from his job as a trucker. He's gone a lot of the time for his work, but I can take care of myself. He's a nice guy, I guess, but he's gone so much we don't really know a lot about each other. And even when he is home, he spends all his time thinking about mom. He's never said it-but I can tell from his eyes. He just sits in the living room, staring out the window at nothing. I don't even remember mom. She left just after I was born. Dad told me once that she left a note, but he's never let me see it. He says that when I'm old enough he'll let me read it.

But I don't really believe him.

I don't think of him as my father-he's just that guy that I live with and am related too. It's not that kind of relationship.

Dad stood in the kitchen, leaning against the counter and holding a cup of coffee. He gave me a tired look when I came in, and motioned for me to sit down at the kitchen table. I scraped back a chair and sat down, wondering if dad knew I had been sneaking out.

"I know you've been leaving the house at night, Felix." Dad sighed, sitting down across from me. That answered that question. "And I know you've been using a fake ID to get into the casinos."

"How do you know?" I squeaked. My stomach hurt. I wondered if I was grounded. I wondered if I was going to get _arrested._ Would I go to jail, or would they just want the money back? Would I still go to jail when I told them the money was gone?

"The police called me. The security at the casino realized that your ID was faked, and called the police, who called me."

"Am I in trouble?"

"You can bet you're in trouble!" Dad slammed his hand down on the table angrily. I jumped, and he rubbed his nose. "Sorry, Felix. But now did you even _get_ a fake ID?" His eyes drifted to the window, and I knew he was thinking about mom again. "Where did I go wrong?" Then he jumped, like he realized what he was doing, and turned back to me, knuckles white on his coffee mug. "The police are making you transfer to a juvenile detention boarding school for the rest of the school year."

"But I-"

"Look, Felix, there's nothing I can do. If you didn't want to get in trouble, you shouldn't have gotten a fake ID and cheated at casinos. And for what, Felix? Clothes? Jewelry?"

"I don't cheat!"

"The security said that you won every game you played. Even _Roulette_. Roulette, Felix? Really? He said you played three times. Nobody wins at Roulette three times in a row. How could you not be cheating?"

"I just… I just win. I'm lucky, like a superpower!" He raised an eyebrow. Okay, try the "new kid" card. "C'mon dad, don't make me switch schools in the middle of the year!"

"It's not my decision to make, Felix. It's just to the end of the year, and then you can move back to your normal school for next year. But if you pull a stunt like this again, then you'll be arrested."

"But I…." I stopped talking. There was no way I was getting out of this, anyway. I shouldn't dig my grave deeper. "Okay."

"Go to bed, Felix." Dad said, and he sounded tired. I stood up, and was almost in my room when he said something that stopped me cold. "This is all your mother's fault."

I turned back around to face him, and his face had gone pale, like he'd only just realized that he'd said that out loud. "Dad, what do you mean this is mom's fault? How can this be mom's fault?"

He just shook his head, still looking shocked.

"Dad! What does this have to do with mom!" I was barely keeping from shouting now.

He opened his mouth and closed it again, then reached inside his jacket. There was a pocket inside the lining that I hadn't noticed before. He reached into it and pulled out a folded piece of notebook paper with something written on it in neat cramped pen writing. He handed it to me without saying anything.

I looked down and started to read.

 _Dear Felix, my daughter, I left you this letter when I left so that I could tell you the truth myself. The truth about me-and about you._

 _I am sorry that I cannot tell you all of this in person, but know that if I could be with you I would. If I stayed with you and your father it would throw luck out of balance as I became human, and that would be dangerous. Can you imagine a world without luck, Felix? No lucky shots, no lucky wins, no_ _faith_ _in the unknown? It would be dark and frightening, and my job is to prevent it from happening. Without me, there would be no prosperity, only eternal poverty, fear, hate._

 _You have many gifts, Felix. You are one of the most important people in the world, even if you haven't figured it out yet. I have blessed you with luck, as I do all my children, and you are strong even without that. You should also know that I loved your father dearly. Please tell him that. If I could have stayed I would, please believe me. But I could not._

 _You are probably wondering who I am, if you are reading this. If your father has not already told you, my name is Tyche. I am the greek goddess of luck and prosperity. And you are my demigod daughter, blessed with my gifts. One day everything will change, and you shall find that the most dangerous thing in the world is sometimes yourself, and the hardest battle we can fight is the one that was right before our eyes all along. That doesn't make sense now: but it will. I know you are angry with me-like mother like daughter. But remember: Your true power will be shown when you have nothing left to fight for. At least, this is what the fates have told me. I am not sure if this is true, but if it is I wish you much luck. Not that you don't already have that._

 _Love and luck, my daugher._

 _TYCHE_

I looked up at dad. He sat at the kitchen table, his face resting in his hands. He let out a low sigh, and slowly lifted his head. His eyes were more tired then usual. "So now you know." I nodded numbly.

"But-it can't be true, can it? How can mom be a goddess? Was she delusional or something?"

"It is true, honey." _Honey._ He had never called me anything but Felix before. As I've said, it wasn't that kind of relationship.

He must really believe what this letter said. And even though I liked the parts of it where mom apologized for being such a dead-end jerk, the rest of it couldn't possibly be true, could it? But it would explain the luck, and the winning…. "Your mother was special. She was lucky, just like you. And I know she loved us. She hated to leave, but she had to. And now you know…. well, now it'll be time for it to start. The thing your mother and I have feared. I've tried to keep you in the dark… but I can't now. You have to leave for your new school as soon as possible. You might be safer there. I'll call to get you sent there tomorrow morning. Yes, that's probably best." He rubbed his stubble as he talked, thinking out loud.

"But dad, I-"

"Go pack your things Felix. Then bed. You're heading out first thing in the morning."

"Dad!"

"Go." It was all I could do to hold back tears as I closed my bedroom door behind me. I set the letter on my nightstand. Then I just stood in the center of my tiny room, frowning around at the four walls, trying to decide what to do. I couldn't believe dad was sending me away. I was leaving tomorrow, and I wouldn't be back until the end of the school year. That was five months away.

I couldn't help it. I sat down on my bed and silently cried, my pillow pressed to my face. After I while I stopped crying and pulled myself together. I couldn't break down-I had to hold myself together. I could take care of myself. That was the way it was, and after all, five months wasn't forever. I could do this.

I pulled my suitcase out of the closet and set it on the bed. I tossed in my favorite clothes (all jeans, t-shirts, and my favorite hoodie-the green one.), a photograph of me with my best friends Garth and Emily, and my mom's letter. I didn't really think I'd need anything else, but I also packed a six-pack of soda and a trash bags worth of candy because I didn't know what the food would be like there.

Then I went to bed. There wasn't much else to be done.

The next morning, dad shook me awake and handed me a piece of toast without a word. As soon as I was ready he rushed me down the stairs and outside into the biting wind, into a taxi, through the city, out at the train station, and left me on the train with only a "be good, Felix" as a goodbye.

But that was fine. It wasn't that kind of relationship. Even if I wanted it to be.

I rubbed my coin between my pointer finger and thumb the way I did when I was nervous. I liked the way the cold metal got warmer ever so slowly between my fingers as I rubbed it. It was reassuring to know that was always the same way every time. And it was helpful for making decisions, of course.

The train ride to my new school was four and a half hours long and extremely boring. I spent the time sleeping and worrying about the new school. Dad hadn't even told me the name of the school-all he had said was that someone would meet me at the station and take me to the school. I wasn't looking forward to this. And I already had a nasty feeling that I wouldn't like the new school at all. But at least I wouldn't have to go to jail-but maybe that would be better then where I was headed. I didn't know. I had never gone to a school like this before-always public schools in the city.

The train slowed and came to a rumbling halt. I stood up and pulled my suitcase down from the rack, following the crowd of commuters out of the train. I scanned the crowd in the station, but I didn't see someone who looked like they could be from a school.

"Scuse me." Someone tapped me on the shoulder. I spun around. It was just a boy-around my age, and he was slap-in-the-face handsome, with blond hair, big green eyes, and was seriously buff.

"What?" I asked, which might have been rude, but my mind tends to stop functioning around cute guys. "Who are you?"

"Sorry, but are you a daughter of Tyche?" He asked, like it was something totally normal that he asked people every day.

"Yeah." I said automatically. I know; stupid. But I'm not a very good liar. Especially when faced with guys, as I already mentioned.

"Oh, cool. The lucky one's taste the best." He stepped back, and his whole body began to change. His skin rippled and turned pale blue, and his hair retreated into his skull. His handsome face became ugly and lumpy, and his clothes turned into a ragged dirty loincloth and rope belt with a sword stuck in it. He got taller and stronger-looking, until he was nearly nine feet tall.

The other people in the train station didn't even notice.

Well, they noticed when I screamed and kicked him in the shins.

The huge ugly blue giant in a dirty loincloth was suddenly holding a club. It was as long as my arm and three times as thick, and there was nails sticking out of it. Now people were looking, and I actually heard someone yell, "He's got a gun!"

 _A gun?_ I thought, but there wasn't time to figure it out, because the great blue giant had just brought the club down where I had been standing a second before. I stumbled back and shoved through crowds of people. One of the trains was pulling away, and security alarms were blaring. And the giant was following me.

He tried to hit me with the club again, but I dropped to the floor and it flew over my head. There was a sound like cannonfire as he sneezed, and a freezing cold wind came out of his mouth. It froze a stack of luggage near me in a block of solid ice. "Cover your mouth when you sneeze, man." I muttered. The other people in the station were screaming and running around, and were almost all out of the exits. Now both trains on either side of the platform I was on were gone, and there was nothing between me and the monster.

I had to fight it, but I had no weapon. The only thing I had was…. I reached into my hoodie pocket and pulled out my coin. It was glowing and hot, so I couldn't hold it. It clinked against the floor and rolled off the edge of the platform onto the tracks.

"Hold still so I can kill you, daughter of Tyche!" The giant bellowed, the club missing my head by an inch and pulverizing the tiles of the platform. I scrambled forward and jumped onto the tracks, searching desperately for my coin. The giant stood on the platform, laughing and roaring. It swung its club, the way someone would swing a broom to hit a mouse. I dodged it and tripped over the rails, landing hard on the metal. My hands and knees burned as I tried to scramble to my feet. The giant sneezed again, the ice spreading across the tracks a foot from my feet. I stood up again, and the club missed my head by a quarter inch.

"Hey! What did I ever do to you, big blue?" I yelled. He paused for a moment, but he didn't stop. "Yeah, stop and think about this! You don't want to kill me! I'd be much more use to you alive!" I shouted. This time he stopped and stared at me dumbly.

I scanned the ground. There was my coin on the ground over by the blue giants foot.

"I mean, after all, wouldn't I be more fun to play with alive? Not dead? I mean, I'm dead then what do I do? Just lay there! What fun is that? Alive, I can keep you entertained. Then you can kill me! Wouldn't that be more fun?" He seemed to be thinking about it. So apparently this guy wasn't super smart. "Oh my god what is that?!" I shouted, pointing behind him. He spun around to look and I dove forward, snatching my coin up off the tracks and running for my life.

Because I saw what he didn't.

There was a train coming in.

The driver pulled on the brakes desperately, and the train wheels screeched loudly. I threw myself up onto the platform at the last moment, the train smashing into the huge blue man. He exploded into golden dust like sand as the train came to a halt.

There was nothing left of him, but what was-his sword was resting on the edge of the platform, almost touching the train. I picked it up.

The blade was three feet long, but still perfectly balanced in my hand. The grip was cold in my hand, the way a can of cold soda is. When I looked closer at the blade, _it was made of ice_. There was strange carvings in the ice, like rough circles and diamonds set upon rough circles and diamonds. And I knew already that the blade was sharp enough to cut you just by touching it.

There were policemen coming in now, tasers aimed at me. I quickly hid the sword under my jacket as best I could, and held up my hands in surrender.

But there was still one question on my mind-what had that thing been? If greek gods were real, then that must have been a greek monster, right? I had been stupid to not realize that they must be real too.

So what happened now?

 **AN: thanks for reading! Please review or follow or favorite! See you next time!**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: thanks for reading this far! If you're on chapter two you must like the story, so you have no excuses for not favoriting/following, or reviewing. Go do that. Right now. Have you done it? Okay!**

 **I don't own PJO or HoO. So don't sue me: I try not to get sued before lunch. It's bad for the health.**

I didn't like the dormitory room of the new school. For that matter, I didn't like the _school_. It was big and square and gray, and the windows were small. There was a chain link fence surrounding it and the yard, like we were in jail and they were holding us in.

The dormitory room was small and painted gray. There was a metal bunk bed against one wall, and a desk, a pair of shelves, and a pair of chairs. My roommate wasn't too bad.

She was short and plump with a bob cut of dark brown hair and chocolatey eyes. She introduced herself as Mathilda, but the name on her math notebook was Meg. She seemed nice enough, offering me chocolate from her secret candy stash and showing me around the school, and she introduced me to her friends Danny and Trish, but all I wanted was to be alone. And anyway, there was something strange about Danny. He walked with a limp and had this strange goatish laugh, and he never took off his hat, but he was nice. I hung out with Meg and her friends, and spent the rest of my time thinking about the monster.

I had kept the sword of course, keeping it clean and carrying it in my jacket. What was funny was that nobody else seemed to be able to see it, and once when Meg had managed she had asked me what baseball team I was on.

So I got used to the new school and hoped for the best. It was only a few months, and then I would see dad again and be able to talk to him, and ask him all the questions bouncing around in my head. I would try to talk to him sooner, but he was ignoring my calls. I had even written him a letter, but he hadn't written back.

Meanwhile, there wasn't much to keep me interested. The school counselor had diagnosed me with kleptomania, so I wasn't allowed to leave the building except weekends, and even then no farther then the fence. I think they were worried I would try to run, which I might have given the chance. It was dead boring there. I couldn't wait until my time was up and I could go home.

"Hey, Felix." It was Danny, Meg's friend, leaning around the doorframe with a hand over his eyes. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah, sure." I said, after quickly pulling my jacket down over my sword. "But Meg isn't here, she's down in the library."

"I know," He said. His dark eyes were curious, and his ginger hair hung an inch above his shoulders. He still wore his red baseball cap, the one he would never take off. "I came to see you, actually. It's important." He looked wild and frightened, like a cornered wild animal. His hair was wild and his hat crooked, and there were scratches across his cheek and burns on his clothes.

"Yeah?" I asked, wondering what this could be about. Danny and I had never spent time together without Meg and Trish, so I didn't know what Danny could want to ask me.

"The monsters are coming. You've seen the monsters before, right?" He asked it so frankly and honestly I thought 'monsters' must be code for something else. He couldn't possibly mean the jolly blue giant, or the letter from my mom, or my luck, or any of the other odd things that had happened to me over the years. "Felix? Any monsters?"

"Yes." I said after a minute. "How did you know? Are you a demigod too?"

"No, I'm a satyr." He laughed. At my puzzled look, he grinned and reached up to pull off his hat.

There were two tiny horns on his head.

"Holy s***." I was about to hyperventilate, and I couldn't look away from those horns. "Holy s***. Holy s***. What the f*** is going on? Why are you here? What the h*** was that blue giant at the trainstation? Why the h*** are you staring at me like that?"

"In reverse order: because my ears are burning, a Laistrygonian giant, to bring you to camp, and I'm a satyr here to keep you safe from monsters until the team from camp arrives to collect you."

"Okay." I said, pressing my hands to my head. My voice was panicky and breathless. "Okay. _Oh-kay_ …. I'm going crazy. That explains things. I'm nuts and your some sort of hallucination. Totally explanatory. That has to be it."

"You're not crazy, and I'm definitely not a hallucination. I think. Anyway, there are monsters coming. We have to go. And there's something I have to tell you. It's really important, shut up and listen! You have to-"

The point of a blade appeared coming out of Danny's stomach. He looked down at it, surprised, and then up at me. He blinked once, and then the blade was pulled back and he fell to the floor, that look of shock still on his face.

Standing behind him, holding a bloody sword, was a snake woman. I remembered reading greek myths in LA last year, and page with a drawing identical to this. A drakon, I remembered. It was a drakon. A drakon had just killed Danny.

I screamed, I couldn't help it. The sword was in my hand before I knew what was happening, and the drakon was stepping over Danny like he didn't matter. "Surrender, demigod!" The drakon's voice sounded like a snake's would if it could talk. "Surrender now!" I wasn't about to do that.

I swung the sword at the monster's head, but it raised its own sword and deflected the blow with a clang of metal. It stabbed at my stomach, and I turned to the side so that the blade passed my belly by an inch. The drakon twisted its sword and mine clattered to the floor with a flare of pain in my hand. I threw my hands up in front of my face as the drakon's blade flew towards my face. But I heard a sound like someone kicking a sandcastle, and opened my eyes to see what had happened.

Danny was still on his back on the floor, his stomach bloody, but he was playing a song on a pair of reed pipes. Thorny vines had grown up out of the wood in the floor and strangled the drakon just before it killed me.

Then Danny fell to the floor, his hands limp, face pale, eyes glazed. He didn't move again.

I set my sword down on the bed with trembling hands and crouched next to Danny. I had barely known anything about him, and he had given his life to help me. I wondered why, and I wondered what the "camp" that he had mentioned had to do with this. I reached forward, hands still shaking violently, and closed Danny's eyes.

I didn't know what to do next. So I didn't do anything-I just left. I packed some clothes and candy from Meg's stash in a backpack with my coin and mom's letter. I changed into my green hoodie, jeans, black snow boots, and black t-shirt with my sword strapped to my belt. I didn't want to bring it, but I couldn't very well leave it behind.

Danny's body disintegrated into soil in a few minutes. I remembered reading that satyrs reincarnated into, like, plants after they died or something. I hoped Danny became something nice, like a flower.

I climbed out the window of the bedroom before Meg came back, closing it behind me. I wouldn't miss this place, but I didn't know where I was going. I didn't even know how to mourn Danny, because we weren't really friends but he had died for me. And what was he trying to tell me that was so important? Where was the camp he had mentioned, and why did Danny want me to go there? I didn't know, and I wasn't even sure I wanted to.

I climbed over the fence that surrounded the school and dropped down on the other side. It was cold and dark, but I wasn't going back. The school was out in the forest, so I followed the road as far as I could into the city, hid at the back of a bus to downtown, and then got off without paying. I could go home right now, I knew I could. But I didn't want to. I was angry at dad, and my disappears-for-fourteen-years-and-sends-me-a-letter-saying-she's-a-f***ing- _goddess_ mom, and even Danny, though the last part wasn't fair.

I would find my own way in this city. And I wouldn't have to go back to dad for help.

 *****ONE MONTH LATER*****

I crouched on the edge of the rooftop, frowning down at the city below me. I was at least twelve stories up. I had climbed here up the fire escape, just to see the view. I might even spend the night up here, but I hadn't decided yet.

"What are you doing up here?"

I jumped, startled, and nearly fell forward off the edge of the roof. A hand caught the back of my green hoodie, dirty and patched on one elbow but the same hoodie I had worn the day I left. Whoever it was pulled me back from the edge just before I could fall.

I twisted to see their face, scrambling to my feet, careful not to trip near the edge of the roof.

"Woah, watch it! Don't wanna fall from up here!" It was a tall boy in grass-stained jeans and a black t-shirt. He had olive skin and dark brown hair that hung down just below his ears, dark green eyes, and a broken nose. There was a tattoo of a flaming torch on his neck, the flames wrapping around his ear. His accent was faintly southern, but you could hardly tell.

"I wouldn't have if you hadn't snuck up on me like that! Who are you, anyway?" I swatted his hand off my arm. I didn't want peoples help.

"I'm Ziggy," he said like it was a totally normal name. "Call me Zig."

"Fine then, Zig. I'm Felix. Felix McMandy."

"Well I wasn't sneaking, Felix. You were lost in thought, I was even being noisy on my way up." He motioned to the fire escape, the same path I had taken to the roof.

"Why're you even up here?" I demanded. "This building is scheduled for demolition."

"I know, that's why I'm even up here." He grinned. "Might as well enjoy it before it gets destroyed, right?" Then he asked, "Do you live near here?"

"No. I don't really live anywhere." He raised an eyebrow.

"Me neither. No family, no parents, no friends." And he looked so sad that I blurted out the words before I could stop them.

"Well now you have one."

"Thanks, Felix. Nice of you."

We didn't have to say anything else to decide to sit on the edge of the roof together. Then later Zig and I found our way back down together. We ran into each other again a few days later, when the minotaur attacked in the middle of downtown. It turns out that Zig was a demigod, to-a son of Alastor, the god of family fights.

When that minotaur attacked, I saw something frightening in my friend. It was his power, that he hadn't mentioned at our first meeting.

Zig could make people angry when he wanted to, so angry that his enemies turned on each other in a rage. He made them turn on their allies, their friends, their family. Anyone they cared about. It was impressive, but also scary. Of course, some might say my powers ares scary, so I'm not one to judge.

After that, Zig and I did everything together. We never stopped moving around, skipping between cities and living wherever we wanted. Once we even rode a train all the way down to florida and back for a two-week vacation (not the legal way of course, we stole aboard on top of one of the cargo cars). I might not have a functioning family, but I had found a best friend.

 **AN: thanks for reading. Please review/follow/favorite.**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: I don't own PJO or HoO. Please review/follow/favorite.**

 *****FOUR MONTHS AFTER THAT*****

Zig and I walked down the street, me jumping over puddles and him with his hands in his pockets, whistling. I had just won another game of Roulette in the nearest casino, so we were both in a good mood. We would be eating for weeks. We could even get a real apartment if we wanted, but because I was only thirteen and Zig was fifteen, we would need help from a parent to get an apartment. Zig had no parents, and I wasn't about to turn to mine.

Anyway, we were both in a good mood, when I heard something down the alley we were walking past. It sounded like sniffling, like someone was crying. "Did you hear that, Zig?" I asked stopping and staring into the darkness of the alley.

"Hear what?" Zig asked, rolling his eyes and grabbing my arm playfully to pull me away. "There isn't anything down there, Felix."

The crying sound came again, and this time Zig heard it too. "Oh, hey," He said, starting down the alley. I followed after him, one hand on the hilt of my sword. "Who's here?"

The crying sound hadn't stopped again, and I followed it to a trashbin at the end of the alley. Crouched behind it was a little girl. "Zig, over here." I said softly. The girls head shot up, and her face was fearful. She whimpered and tried to scramble away. "Wait, we won't hurt you. We're here to help."

Zig blocked the end of the alley while I tried to talk down the little girl. She didn't seem to want to talk. "Are you okay? What's your name?" She shook her head, but spoke anyway.

"I-I'm Sanya." She said, not meeting my eyes. I kneeled on the concrete to be eye-to-eye with her. "Are you monsters? The last ones were monsters. Please don't hurt me."

"We're not going to hurt you." I promised, shooting Zig a look that said, _get over here, buster._ He crouched next to me and smiled at the little girl, which seemed to calm her down a little bit. "Are you a demigod, Sanya?"

Her honey-colored eyes widened. "Y-Yes. Are you? I'd never met another one."

"Yes, we are. My name is Zig, and my father is Alastor. This is my friend Felix, and she's a daughter of Tyche. Who's your godly parent, Sanya?"

"Morpheus." Sanya said proudly, a tiny smile cracking across her grimy face. "I can make dreams." I exchanged a look with Zig, racking my brains for who Morpheus was.

Apparently Zig didn't remember either, because he asked, "What do you mean, Sanya?"

"Morpheus is my daddy. He's the god of dreams. I can make dreams too. I can talk to people in dreams, and I can show them happy things. I like making dreams, but I don't have anybody to send dreams to anymore." The smile disappeared again. "I used to give my mommy dreams, but then she had a nightmare and it made her angry. So I left."

My heart broke for Sanya. She was such a cute little kid-she had big honey-colored eyes, curly blond hair in two braids, and wore a pink dress with yellow flowers and light brown boots. Her plump round face and kind features made her look even more adorable.

"Tell you what, Sanya," I said. "Do you want to come with us? We don't have mommies or daddies either. And we can protect you from the monsters." Zig was giving me his deluxe _what-the-heck-are-you-doing_ look, but I ignored him.

"Can you really protect me from the monsters?"

"Yes. I promise."

Zig made a gagging sound and I shot him a glare. I climbed to my feet and offered Sanya a hand. She took it and I pulled her up, leading her past the gaping Zig by the hand. Zig stood anxiously at the mouth of the alley for a minute as we walked away, then finally groaned and ran after us with a muttered swear word that I was really glad Sanya didn't hear.

 **AN: thanks for reading! See you next time!**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: I don't own PJO or HoO. Please review/follow/favorite.**

Sanya giggled and took a huge bite out of her apple. "I don't believe you," She said with her mouth full of apple.

"It's true!" Zig said, grinning. Sanya and I exchanged a glance at then rolled our eyes. "There I was, surrounded by tigers in the middle of the zoo pen, armed only with a chocolate milkshake and bike handlebars, when all of a sudden-"

"Oh gods," Sanya said suddenly.

"What is is, Sy?" Zig asked, momentarily distracted from his terrible story.

"Those people over there have a picture of you, Felix!" Sanya said, pointing. About a block away was a boy with black hair and sea-green eyes, with a blond gray-eyed girl. A boy with blond hair and blue eyes was with them too, and the three of them were showing people a picture of me. The boy with green eyes seemed familiar, but I couldn't place where I had seen him before.

"What are they doing? Why would they be looking for you? Do you know them?" Zig asked, frowning at them. Sanya's the only person I know who can look worried while taking a huge bite out of an apple, but she managed it.

"No, I didn't. I mean, I don't remember them. Why…." I grabbed my friends hands and pulled them into the alley where the kids looking for me couldn't see us.

"I'll go walk past them and they'll ask me if I know you and then I can get them to tell me why they're looking for you. Wait here." Zig said, leaving the alley. I glanced at Sanya, and she nodded. She shoved her half-eaten apple into her pocket (I wrinkled my nose, but she just gave a one-tooth-missing grin), and then I grabbed her hand and pulled her up the fire escape to the roof. We ran across the rooftops, looking down at Zig as he walked casually along the street towards the kids with a picture of me. I have to give him credit-he's good at what he does. He kept his hands in his pockets and slipped into the crowds of people, but his black hair stuck up just enough, and he stood just tall enough, that he stood out a little.

"Excuse me, do you you know this girl?" They'd taken the bait. The blond girl with gray eyes held up the picture of me to Zig as he tried to walk past her. The photo was my last school picture, taken months before. In the photo my sandy-blond hair was in one loose braid over my shoulder but shorter then it was now, my clothes were clean, and my brown eyes were bright. There was a big grin stretched across my face. It was taken before I even knew I was a demigod. Back when life was simple and easy, and I loved my dad and didn't know my mom. When I had lots of friends and lived in a nice apartment.

That was a good time. But I wouldn't go back. I was a different person now, stronger and braver, with a best friend and a little sister to care about me, not my dad.

Zig frowned at the photo for a moment, then shook his head. "Sorry, never seen her. Why are you looking for her?" His voice was casual, but I knew better. But something about the gray-eyed girl was looking at him worried me. This girl was smart. Maybe just smart enough.

"She's in trouble with the police, but nothing major. Don't worry about it." The blond girl said. As Zig started away, she caught his arm. "Actually, I think you might know where she is. We aren't going to hurt her, we just need to talk to her." I caught my breath, squeezed Sanya's hand.

"I don't know her. But I'm not good with faces…. can I have her name?"

"Felix McMandy. She's thirteen. Seriously, where is she?"

"I don't know her, sorry. If you don't mind, I have somewhere to be."

"Annabeth? What's going on?" The two boys were walking towards Annabeth and Zig. "Does he know her?"

"Yes, I think he does." The girl, Annabeth, said. Zig shook his head and pulled his head free.

"No, I don't. Sorry." He said, turning around the corner.

Sanya and I turned and climbed down the fire escape off the rooftop, meeting up with Zig in the alley. "The police? What did you do? _What the hell did you do?_ " He hissed, obviously trying not to panic.

"Nothing! And why would the police send teenagers to find someone? There's a trillion holes in that lie." I said. I was still holding onto Sanya's hand, the tiny eight-year-old squeezing my fingers tightly. I squeezed back, trying to reassure her that it would be okay. Or maybe reassuring myself. "We should go, in case they come after me."

"Okay," Zig said. I stepped around him to lead them out of the alley, when there was a shout from the street. "Okay, you're right."

"It's her!" The boy with black hair and sea-green eyes was running towards us. "Over here!"

"Run!" Zig screamed, grabbing my arm and dragging me away. I pulled Sanya up ahead of me, running down the alley to the side street. Zig pulled us around the sharp corner, and I crouched to dig my fingernails under the manhole cover, twisting it up and dropping it on the concrete. Zig swung his legs in and jumped into the sewer tunnel. I squeezed Sanya's hands and helped her climb down, Zig catching her and setting her down in the sewer tunnel. "Felix, come on!" Zig hissed, motioning to me from the sewers.

I crouched and swung my legs into the manhole cover, but before I could jump in someone grabbed the back of my hoodie. "Felix!" Zig shouted, I twisted and slapped the green-eyed boy in the face with one hand. He let go of me, and I slid into the sewers. Zig caught one arm and helped me stay on my feet. Sanya's eyes were wide and fearful, but I took her hand and helped her along next to Zig and me. I heard the kids splash down into the sewers behind us, and I held the sword I had stolen from the jolly blue giant in one hand, pulling Sanya along with the other.

Sanya stumbled and fell, and Zig reached down and scooped her up, piggy-back style. We could run faster now, but the other three were gaining. They were older, and knew what they were doing. But they didn't know about our powers.

"Wait! We just need to talk to you!" Annabeth shouted.

I skidded around a corner, Zig panting next to me, Sanya bouncing on his back. The other kids followed, and they were gaining. Zig was slowing with Sanya's extra weight slowing him down. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my coin. It was searing hot, the way it always was when I was in danger. I squeezed it between pointer finger and thumb in my free hand, drawing my sword.

"Guys, I'll catch up." I hissed, stopping and turning to face our pursuers. They weren't holding up weapons, although they probably had them. But I still held my sword in front of me protectively. I didn't know these people-they could be monsters for all we knew. Though the blond girl seemed too smart to be a monster.

Zig stopped and stood behind me to the side a bit, obviously not sure if he should stay or keep running. I was about to yell at him to get out of here, when the girl with gray eyes stepped forward and started talking.

"Thank you for stopping. We aren't here to hurt you, we just need to talk to you. I'm Annabeth, this is Percy and Jason. We're demigods too, like you. I'm a daughter of Athena, Percy is a son of Poseidon, and Jason is a son of Jupiter. Who's your godly parents? And names?"

The way Annabeth asked for our names after our godly parents, it was like they weren't as important.

"You already know me, and I'm a daughter of Tyche." I lowered my sword a bit, but didn't put it away. They could still be trying to trick us. "This is Zig, son of Alastor, and Sanya is a daughter of Morpheus."

"Who?" Percy looked confused. Annabeth stepped on his foot, and he shut up.

"Really, genius? I'm flattered." Zig rolled his eyes behind me, and Sanya giggled.

"Morpheus is the god of dreams, silly. Alastor is god of family fighting. And Tyche is the goddess of luck. You didn't know that? I knew that, and I'm eight." Jason snickered, and even Annabeth tried not to smile.

"Oh. Right." Percy said, looking a little embarrassed to have to have an eight-year-old explain something to him.

"Alright, I've had enough of this." Zig snapped. "We're outta here."

"We're only here to tell you-" Annabeth started.

But Zig's eyes flashed bright red, and glared at the other demigods. They all doubled over in pain, and when they straightened up their eyes were red as well. They turned and started shouting at each other angrily. The girl, Annabeth, screamed and slapped Percy. Jason laughed cruelly and Percy kicked him in the shins. Their eyes glowed red, and their voices were deeper then before.

A shiver ran up my spine. Zig's power was almost scary, but there was no time to think about that now. We were already running again.

Sanya was clinging to Zig's neck, nearly strangling him, but the other demigod's yells were already starting to die down, so he couldn't put her down. "That only bought us time." Zig panted. "I could set them off for longer, but it takes too much energy when I'm carrying Sanya. Jeez, Sy, lay off the donuts!"

Sanya pouted, but I actually laughed. We were free, and I was sure we could take those three demigods. Nothing could go wrong.

"Annabeth said they went into the sewers in her IM. They're down here somewhere." Unless they didn't come alone. Crap, I had to stop thinking things like that. Zig skidded to a stop, and we peered around the corner. Three more kids were walking towards us-a big asian guy, a small dark girl with a golden sword, and a girl with choppy brown hair.

"S***," Zig whispered, and Sanya gave him a reproachful glare. I motioned silently for them to follow me the other way, but the voices of the first three were coming towards us from that way.

"Follow me," I whispered, and Zig nodded. I pulled out my sword and ran around the corner with it in one hand, shoving past the demigods.

"Coming through!" Zig half-shouted half-laughed, and Sanya actually waved as they ran.

Zig and I grinned at each other, both of us finding the shouts of the demigods behind us funny. We took two more turns, and ran into a third group of demigods. There was a scrawny latino boy, a girl in camo clothes with stringy brown hair, and a pretty girl with caramel hair in a white shirt in jeans.

We turned the other way and avoided them, but we were lost in the maze of sewer tunnels and badly outnumbered. It was three against nine. Well, two and a half against nine, to get technical. Sanya didn't like fighting, and she was pretty small. Plus, she was the only one of us that wasn't armed. I had my ice sword and Zig carried a switchblade, but Sanya had nothing. Zig had thought she should have one, but-stupid, stupid! I had thought she was too young. _Stupid._

"We have to go up." I panted, and Zig nodded, starting up a ladder with Sanya clinging to his back. I followed him up, but one of the groups of demigods had caught up and someone grabbed my foot when I was only halfway out. They yanked me part way back in, but Zig caught my forearms and tried to pull me up. I kicked at whoever it was below me with the heel of my boot, but other people were grabbing my shoes and pulling me down.

"Zig! Pull harder!" I screamed, and he leaned his full weight into me. I felt like my arms were about to be pulled out of their sockets. But the demigods who were chasing us pulled me out of Zig's grasp and into the sewers, making my crack my head on the concrete floor. I fell unconscious.

 **AN: thanks for reading! Please review/follow/favorite. See you next time!**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: I don't own PJO. Please leave a review or follow/favorite.**

***ANNABETH'S DIARY PAGE, SIXTEENTH OF JUNE***

June 16, 2015

We finally found Felix McMandy this morning. We've been looking for her ever since the satyr Danny was killed months ago at her school. She went missing after. The last report we received from Danny before he died was garbled, messed up by interference during transmission. But we managed to make out the words, I've found a demigod, a powerful one….she's important to the….I'm going to try and….there's no time left. They are coming. We're not sure what he meant, but it sounds like Danny discovered something big, and it was important to this demigod, Felix McMandy.

So we finally tracked her down, and she was with an older boy and a younger girl. Sanya and Zig, I think she said. All three of them were children of minor gods, but were still powerful, which I something I don't really understand.

They reminded me a lot of Thalia, Luke, and I, before Grover found us and took us to camp. Zig was a lot like Luke, kind of older-brotherly but nice, and Felix seemed a lot like Thalia., the fighter. Sanya was so small, though, probably not older then seven or eight. I feel bad for her, having to live on the streets the way I did when I was a kid. Still, it's good that she found older demigods to help her the way I found Thalia and Luke.

We brought Felix with us to camp. She's told us a lot, but she doesn't know a lot. We gave her a bed in the big house at Percy and Jason's request. I didn't really understand why, but they said something about not wanting her to be alone in a cabin. Felix is pretty young, only thirteen.

I thought that the first time when we met her in the sewers below NYC. She was so small and thin, but she was holding up this big sword like she was ready to take us on herself. She looked like a little kid: shoulder-length sandy blond hair and kind brown eyes, but the way she held herself showed that she's used to having to take care of herself. Gods, she reminded me of Thalia the first time we met. She even dressed a little like Thalia, with a dirty dark-green hoodie, torn grass-stained jeans, and black hiking boots. She's probably been living on the streets ever since she left the school where Danny found her, poor kid. I'm glad those three demigods have each other.

But I'm not looking forward to searching for her friend Zig, the son of Alastor. When we caught them in the sewers, it was like he got into our brains and made us (Percy, Jason, and I) turn on each other. Made us hate each other. I'm worried because it made me angry at Percy more then Jason, even though I like Percy more, and I don't understand why. But I think it's because Alastor is the god of family feuds, so Zig can turn you on the people you care about. That's awful. Nobody should have that kind of power. The little girl, Sanya, could apparently control dreams, which makes sense if she's a daughter of Morpheus. And Felix…. she apparently is "lucky". Whatever that means.

***ZIG'S JOURNAL PAGE***

This was supposed to be just another great day, messing around in the city with my friends, surviving and fighting and doing what we do. Some god must have a really screwed up sense of humor. If I ever figure out which one, I'm hitting them over the head with a chair. Seriously, I mean what jerk decided that some other random demigods should come and kidnap Felix right from under Sanya and I? It's not fair! My best friend is kidnapped, and now I'm all alone taking care of an eight-year-old on the rooftop in the city. This sucks. This totally sucks. And to make it worse we aren't even sure where she went. I'm praying for guidance from dad, but he probably isn't listening. It's not like taking care of family is really his thing. Actually, the opposite. I also asked Sanya to search for her in her dreams tonight, and see if she can pick up on her wavelength or whatever the hell it is that she does, the little nutcase (not that I don't like her, she's like a sister, but I just don't know how to take care of her and I need to find Felix). I don't really get how her powers work, but maybe she'll pick up on something. It's my fault that they took Felix, anyway. I wasn't strong enough to pull her away, and I wasn't fast enough for us to escape, and I wasn't smart enough to grab her and Sanya by the ears and drag them away the moment we saw people asking about her on the street. I should have been good enough, but I wasn't, and now my best friend is who-knows-where and there's nothing I can do about it. Nothing at all.

***SANYA'S DIARY***

ZIG ASKED ME TO LOOK FOR FELIX TONIGHT WHEN I SLEEP, BUT I'M NOT SURE THAT I CAN. I DON'T KNOW WHERE SHE IS, AND IF SHE'S TOO FAR AWAY OR NOT DREAMING TONIGHT IT WON'T WORK. I CAN ONLY FIND THE SLEEPERS THAT ARE WITHIN FIFTY MILES OF ME, AND HAVING DREAMS. IF ANYTHING GOES WRONG, THEN NO FELIX.

I DON'T REALLY GET WHY IT WORKS THAT WAY. IN MY SLEEP I DREAM THAT I'M FLYING AND I'M OVER THE CITY. I CAN SEE ALL THE PEOPLE, AND ALL THEIR DREAMS AND HOPES, AND WHEN I TOUCH THEIR FOREHEADS I CAN SEE THEIR DREAMS. ONCE I TOUCHED THE FOREHEAD OF A LITTLE GIRL, AND I SAW A DREAM ABOUT RIDING A UNICORN. THAT WAS ONE OF MY FAVORITES. BUT SOMETIMES I LOOK IN THEIR HEADS AND SEE NIGHTMARES INSTEAD OF DREAMS. IT HURTS TO WATCH THOSE, PHYSICALLY HURTS. THEY'RE SCARY AND I DON'T LIKE THEM. BUT DOES ANYBODY REALLY LIKE NIGHTMARES?

LAST NIGHT I LOOKED FOR FELIX IN MY DREAMS. WHEN IT STARTED I WAS FLOATING OVER THE STREETS OF THE CITY, AND I SAW EVERYTHING MOVING AROUND BELOW ME. I FLEW DOWN TOWARDS THE GROUND, AND TRIED TO SENSE FELIX'S DREAM SIGNAL. PEOPLE ALL HAVE DIFFERENT SIGNALS WHEN THEY'RE DREAMING, THAT TELLS YOU WHO'S WHO. IF I CAN LEARN SOMEBODY'S DREAM SIGNAL, THEN I CAN FIND THEM FROM FAR AWAY, IF THEY'RE IN RANGE.

I SEARCHED FOR FELIX'S DREAM SIGNAL, BUT I COULDN'T FIND IT. I'M WORRIED THAT THEY'VE TAKEN HER SO FAR AWAY WE'LL NEVER FIND HER. SHE'S LIKE MY SISTER. I DON'T KNOW WHAT ZIGGY AND I WILL DO IF WE CAN'T FIND HER. I HOPE SHE'S OKAY.

I'M SCARED.

 **AN: thanks for reading! Please leave a review/follow/favorite.**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: I don't own PJO or HoO.**

 *****AT CAMP HALF BLOOD, NEXT DAY*****

I opened my eyes. Bright sunlight shone in my eyes and refused to let me go back to sleep. I was in a warm feather bed, under a patchwork quilt embroidered with gold threads. The floor and ceilings were made of cherry wood, and the light made everything glow gold.

"Hey, she lives!" A head popped over the side of the bunk over me. "Told you she wasn't dead!" The girl rolled off the side of the bed and bounced up and down in the middle of the cabin. She had a round rosy face and jet-black hair, with different neon colors died in her hair in streaks. Her eyes were the unnerving part-the irises were pure gold. I didn't think that was even possible. She wore a red leather jacket and jeans with flowers embroidered in gold and pastel colors on them. She looked like she was maybe a year older then I was.

"Who-where-" I tried to talk, but it was just a mumble. Things kept blurring and sharpening again, like I had a concussion.

"Oh, you're not supposed to get up or talk. You have a concussion, you were out for hours. It's morning now, that was yesterday. Asher! Get in here!" The girl yelled to the door, and a boy hurried in. His eyes were hazel, and his jet-black hair was wildly curly. He wore an orange t-shirt and shorts, and broke into a big grin when he saw me. Guessing from his height, he was maybe fifteen, around Zig's age.

"I'm Asher." The boy said. "This nutty harpy is Faustina, but everyone calls her Faust. We're your half siblings. You're at-"

"Wait." I held up my hands. "Hold up. Half siblings? You're children of Tyche, too?"

"Damn straight." Asher said.

"Now up and at 'em, girl!" Faust said, grabbing my arm and pulling me out of bed.

"Weren't you just telling me to rest?" I asked, standing up. "Can't you make up your mind?"

"Fickle Faust." Asher mumbled.

"Shut up, Ash." Faust snapped.

Faust pulled me out of the cabin, and Asher trailed along behind us. They gave me the full tour of camp, showing me everything from the fiery rock wall to the nymphs in the lake. Then Faust and Asher marched me up to the big house.

"Chiron said that he wanted to see you when you woke up." Faust said.

"Who's Chiron?"

Faust and Asher glanced at each other, obviously trying not to laugh. "Okay, then. Thanks."

It took a while for me to get over the fact that Chiron was a horse, once they managed to find him on the other side of the porch. Then I had to watch the orientation film, which explained all about the gods and told me about all the exciting programs! available at camp. Then Faust and Asher led me back to Chiron, and hurried off to their archery class.

"Your father called for you." Chiron said, once my siblings were gone. "Do you want me to call him back for you?"

"No." I snapped. "I don't want to talk to him." Chiron raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment. "Are my friends here? Zig and Sanya?" Chiron shook his head.

"No, they escaped, but we managed to bring you back here, to camp." I thought about that for a moment.

"So can I go?"

"No. This is where you are safe, with other demigods. Other people like you. As soon as we find your friends, we'll bring them here so that they can be safe." I bit the inside of my cheek. I was trapped here.

"But I have to find them. And I don't want to stay here. Have you _met_ these kids? They're not like me at all. I have to go, I already have a home. And it's not here!" Chiron looked more and more tired with every word I said. "You have to let me go!"

"You are safe here, but you are not safe there." Chiron said. "You may not go. We will find your friends and bring them here, but you aren't leaving."

I opened and closed my mouth, trying to think of an excuse he would go for, but I didn't have one. "But I have to-"

"You're not going."

I spun around and stormed back to the Tyche cabin. It was just as beautiful from the outside as it was from the inside-not very large, but cosy and made of cherrywood. The trim was painted a warm brown, and the windows were tinted gold glass. Yellow and pink roses grew up one side of the cabin, and **TYCHE** was painted in gold on the door. The whole cabin seemed to radiate luck and prosperity. I threw the door open and stormed in.

Asher and Faust were already back from their class, and they both jumped when the door slammed shut behind me. "What happened, concussion girl?" Asher asked.

"I'm sure she's got things under control!" Faust smiled. Her positivity was beginning to be a little creepy. I wondered if she ever actually stopped smiling. "Everything's gonna be A-okay!"

"Faust, can I borrow a drachma for an IM?" I asked, and she handed me one.

"Who're you calling?" Asher asked, a crease of worry between his eyebrows. "Chiron said-"

"I don't care about what Chiron says. I have to do this. Later, guys." hurried back out of the cabin and towards the woods. I didn't want anyone to hear me talking to Zig and Sanya.

"Hey, look what the cat dragged in!" A high girly voice giggled behind me. Oh great. I knew that voice. It sounded like Drew Tanaka from the Aphrodite cabin, and she was a real jerk. "Gods, did you dress that way, like, _voluntarily_ , or are you some sort of charity case?"

I turned slowly around to face Drew. She was snickering with a couple of cronies, all wearing too much makeup and designer clothes. "No, please! You're not _ugly_ , but jeez-"

"Sorry, Drew. I would be so embarrassed if I looked like you. It's pretty terrible that you were in such a disfiguring accident. Or were you born like that?" Drew flushed scarlet, but she wasn't as much of a pushover as I had expected.

"Poor Drew. Born without brains. That's just unfortunate. Probably cursed by Aphrodite with that dry skin, too." I smiled sweetly as Drew whipped out a pocket mirror and frantically checked her skin with it. I turned and started to walk away.

"No wonder her dad kicked her out. Who'd want a loser freak like that for a kid?" I froze as Drew and her cronies laughed.

I spun around and punched her in the face. Maybe not the best decision, but she's a real jerk. "What's going on over here?" A lot of other kids were coming over towards us, Piper and Jason the only ones I knew. Jason was the one who had spoken. "Did you hit Drew?"

"That's understandable." Piper muttered, and Jason shot her a glare.

"My nose! The freak broke my nose!" Drew shrieked, and several blond Apollo boy's rushed forward to help her, moon-eyed and in awe of her majesty's presence. "She's a freak!"

I saw Faust and Asher on either side of me in the corners of my eye. "Drew started it, we saw the whole thing." Asher said. "It wasn't Felix's fault."

"Yeah! Drew totally started it! Faust agreed.

"You should go talk to Chiron." Piper said, but my new siblings weren't going down yet.

"Actually, as head counselor for the Tyche cabin I'm in charge of her punishment. And I say her punishment is that she has to spend time with Faust. Come on, guys," Asher, grabbed my arm and dragged me away, Faust jogging to keep up. "What was that, Felix? What happened?" _Oh,_ I realized. _They were lying for me. They didn't see._

"Drew started it. All I did was punch her. And it's not that I'm not really thankful for the help, which I am, but I really have to go. I have to IM somebody." Faust and Asher glanced at each other, and I noticed that Faust's dimples were still there. She was still smiling, if only a little. "Please, guys. I promise I won't get into anymore fights."

They finally agreed, and let me go. I hurried into the woods and finally found a stream where the water ran over rocks, sending up a spray. I tossed my drachma into the spray and said, "Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept this offering. Show me Zig, son of Alastor."

The drachma disappeared, and the mist warped to show Zig and Sanya sitting on the roof of a building in the city.

"Zig! Sy!"

They turned and broke out into grins, scrambling over to the IM. "What happened? Who were those people? Where are you? How are you talking to us? Are you okay?"

"Um, in reverse order, yes I am, an Iris message, camp half-blood, demigods, and said demigods took me to said camp. Dang, did I forget to answer in the form of a question? I'm not going to the lightning round! There goes the college fund!"

There was a noise behind me, and I whipped around, but there was nobody there.

"Felix? Is someone there with you?" Zig asked, frowning.

"No, I'm in the woods. Where nobody can hear this." He nodded.

"So, is this camp safe? Do you want us to come get you? What's the plan here, boss?" Zig asked.

"I-I don't know." Zig and Sanya glanced at each other doubtfully. "No, seriously. I mean, this place seems pretty nice." I was thinking out loud now. "Monsters can't get into the camp, but we can fight monsters. And the food here is good, but we can get food in the city, too. I'm not sure what to do, guys," I glanced back and forth between them, hoping one of them would have a brilliant idea. "What do we do?"

"I think you should come back to the city." Zig said.

"Yeah, I don't want to go to some camp." Sanya agreed.

"Okay. Okay. So, I sneak out-"

"No, we don't want more enemies then we already have." Zig said. "Just ask whoever's in charge there if you can go. If they say yes, then go. If they say no, go anyway. Then we can say we at least tried."

"Right. Meet you at central park, midnight?" They both nodded. "Good luck guys. See you soon. And be careful."

"Aren't we always?" Zig grinned, and Sanya swatted her hand through the IM. I turned around and jogged back through the woods. I kept thinking I heard something behind me, like the crack of a twig or the whisper of leaves, but I couldn't see anyone. _It's probably just nymphs,_ I told myself. But Faust and Asher had said that there was monsters in the woods. I stumbled over a log and broke into a sprint.

I knew what I needed to bring, but I didn't have it. So I paid the Stoll's from Hermes cabin ten dollars to distract Argus while I broke into the camp store. It was easy-all I had to do was short-circuit the barcode detectors at the front door by cutting a wire, and with Argus gone the stuff was just waiting to be taken.

I found a satchel and slung it over a shoulder, tossing in about twenty drachmas, a few clothes, and a map of NYC. Then I snuck into the toolshed where the campers kept weapons. I had my ice sword, but Zig and Sanya were practically unarmed. So I found a bronze shotgun and a golden sword and dagger.

This wouldn't be so hard.

 *****THAT NIGHT*****

I rolled silently out of my bunk. Faust and Asher were sound asleep, Faust snoring with her hair in her mouth. I stuffed my knuckles into my mouth to keep from laughing, and turned away. I quickly dressed in the bathroom, in my ratty green hoodie and jeans. I slung the satchel over my shoulder, strapped the gold sword to my hip, hid the dagger up my sleeve, and slung the shotgun over my back. I held my ice sword in one hand.

I crept out, closing the cabin door silently behind me.

"Where are you going?" I jumped a mile. Percy, Piper, Jason, and Annabeth were standing in front of the cabin.

"Just going for a walk." I shrugged. "Don't worry." I tried to sidestep them, but Annabeth grabbed my sleeve. I mentally groaned and tried not to panic. Just a little luck and fast-talking could get me out of this.

"We heard you talking to your friends with the IM." Annabeth said. "You shouldn't leave camp."

"You can't stop me going." I said, pulling away. "And what were you doing listening on my call? Rude much?" They flushed.

"You broke Drew's nose." Piper said. "Something was wrong. We followed to help you. But you shouldn't leave camp, Felix. You're safe here. You have siblings and friends, and you-"

"No I don't!" I snapped. "My friends are in the city waiting for me. I'm not staying here." I walked away down the path to half-blood hill, but they weren't giving up that easily. They followed me. "Just leave me alone. You're not changing my mind."

"But your siblings!" Percy protested. "What about Faust and Asher? They stuck up for you today, don't you owe them something?" He had me there.

"They aren't my siblings. Just because we have the same mom doesn't make us siblings. And I didn't ask them to help me. I could've handled that." I was halfway to half-blood hill now. "Look, you don't even know me. Why do you guys care so much?"

"Because of the message from Danny!" Piper burst out. I stopped.

"D-Danny?"

"Yes, your satyr protector. He tried to send us a message before he died, but we didn't get most of it. But it made it sound like something really big and important was happening, and that it had everything to do with you." Annabeth said. I tried to brush it off. They were probably just making this up to scare me into staying. Well it wasn't going to work.

I climbed the hill. "I don't care."

"Yes, you do." Percy said. I turned and glared at him.

"You don't know me. I only met you yesterday, and you knocked me unconscious and dragged me here! Why should I do what you say?"

"You probably feel really guilty about Danny dying. But you just don't want to deal with that, so you're pretending like it doesn't even matter to you. But if you stay here at camp, we can-"

"I'm not staying here!" I stormed, reaching the top of the hill. "I don't care about your stupid problems. I've got my own to deal with, so just bug off already." Annabeth grabbed the hood of my hoodie.

"You have to stay here!"

I turned and yanked on my hoodie, twisting her hand. "Hey!" Percy yelled. I fled down the other side of the hill towards the road, holding my sword in one hand, the satchel and shotgun bouncing on my back. "Felix!"

But I kept running. Running away from them, and the camp, and my siblings and my mom and my whole screwed up family. I might not know what would happen to me on the streets, but it was safer. Because Zig and Sanya were running, too. So maybe we could run together. Maybe that was the best way. _Or maybe you're being really selfish,_ the little voice in my head said. _You should go back._

I ignored it.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: thanks for reading! I don't own PJO or HoO.**

 *****CENTRAL PARK, NYC, MIDNIGHT*****

"Felix!" Zig wrapped me in a bear hug. I felt Sanya's arms around my waist as well. I grinned and told them I was fine and they were smothering me and all that, but secretly? I was really really glad to see them. I hadn't realized how much I missed them. I bit my lip so I didn't cry.

"I was worried you wouldn't be able to sneak out." Sanya said, hugging my legs tighter. I pulled free from Zig, leaned down, and scooped her up into my arms and onto my back.

"Don't be silly! Nobody can stop me. I'm the luckster, remember 'lil girl?" Sanya giggled and nodded.

"But did they follow you? Are they coming? C'mon, Felix, what's going on?" Zig asked, dark eyes worried and prying into my thoughts.

"I don't think they followed me." I reassured him, and Sanya's death grip on my neck loosened a little. She leaned her tiny blond head into my shoulder happily. Sanya was such a cute kid. "I snuck out okay. A couple of kids overheard us IMing, but I got past them. Other then that, it was-"

"Wait." Zig went pale. "They heard the IM? Then don't they know this is where we're meeting?" I realized he was right. Gods, why hadn't I thought of that? They could be here any minute.

"Hey! Put your hands up!" There was a shout behind us. I whipped around. A cop was there, gun pointed at us. Three more cop cars were pulling up. "You are under arrest for the murder of Danny White! Put your weapons down and your hands up!" Sanya whimpered. Zig set his switchblade down on the ground. I set down Sanya, who put up her hands with Zig, and pulled off the shotgun, setting it down carefully on the ground. I put down both swords and the dagger, as well. "Now turn around, slowly! We're going to handcuff you!" I glanced at the others and slowly turned around, and more policemen hurried up, roughly handcuffing us.

This was bad.

 *****NYCPD HOLDING CELL*****

I sat in a holding cell in the police headquarters, my hands cuffed together in my lap and staring at the door. It was locked from the outside, I had checked, and guarded. Zig and Sanya were somewhere else. I was the only one under real arrest. The other two were being ID'd so that they could be sent back. Sanya, to her mom. Zig-I didn't know. He had no family. Other then Sanya and I.

I was miserable. The demigods at camp half blood must have called the police to bring us down. Now I was going to go to jail for killing Danny, because they couldn't try a dead drakon, could they?

The door of my cell opened, and I walked out. Two guards led me to a room with a glass divider down the middle. There was a desk in the middle, cut in half by the glass, with a chair on one side and a chair on the other side. There was a small hole cut in the glass so you could talk to someone on the other side. A visiting room. Probably the demigods from camp half-blood here to gloat at their victory.

But when the door opened, it wasn't the demigods from camp.

It was dad.

His dark brown eyes were tired, with bags under them. His face was lined with worry. His whole body sagged, like life had finally beaten him down. His sandy blond hair, once the same color as mine, was growing in gray, the way his beard was. He looked so old. So sad. I knew it was my fault. I tried to remember that I was mad at him. But it was hard.

"Felix." He said. I didn't respond. My eyes were fixed on dad, and he was staring at me as well. I realized that just as much as he had changed to me, I must seem so different to him. My hair was longer and uneven since I had Zig cut it, and my hoodie was dirty and patched, and my jeans were grass-stained and my sneakers were too small and scuffed. But this was who I was. He had better just deal.

Suddenly all the anger just flowed out of me. I just couldn't be mad anymore. I had spent so long being angry at my parents I had almost forgotten about my mother's letter, and the way dad's eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled. Or when dad had taught me how to ride a bike, and how he always used to tell me that mom would come home one day, and that she never wanted to go.

I started to cry, and I pressed one hand against the glass, like maybe it would break. Dad was crying, too, and smiling, and he pressed his hand against the glass as well.

"Dad." I said.

"Felix." He smiled at me, and suddenly I felt warm inside. "Felix, I know that you didn't do what the police said you did. I know you, you never would have. The gods send me a message. They'll get you out of here."

"What about my friends? Zig, the son of Alastor, and Sanya the daughter of Morpheus? Can you get them out, too?" Dad's eyes fixed on the wall behind me.

"Felix…"

"Dad, they're innocent, too!"

"Sanya's mother is here to take her home. Poor woman's been worried sick about her daughter for months." Dad glared at me reproachfully, like that was my fault, and just like that the moment was broken. I took my hand down. Old dad was back, the dad that was never there and never listened. "Zig's wanted on several petty theft charges, and then they're going to send him into the foster system to find a family to take him in, so he can have a good home."

"No!" I cursed, and dad winced a little. "Sanya hates her mom, you can't send her away with her! She's just a kid, she needs me and Zig! And Zig won't go to a good home! The foster system sucks, you can't this!"

"Honey-"

"Don't do that, dad! You can't send my friends away, you can't! And what are you going to do with me, huh? What's your brilliant plan for me?" I was crying now, but with anger not sadness. That felt better.

"You're coming home. We'll work this out, honey, your mother's back now, we can-"

"I can't just go home!" I screamed. "I can't! I'm not the kid you know anymore, dad! I'm a different person now and I can't just be happy to sit at home and go to school and be-be normal! You don't understand!"

"This argument is over, young lady." Dad's jaw was set. "And we'll have to have even stricter rules after this. Do you have any idea how worried I've been?"

"Dad!"

"Don't interrupt-"

"Shut up!" I screamed. He looked like he'd been slapped. "Just shut up! I'm not going with you! I'd rather go to prison! And you can't send away Zig and Sanya, you can't seperate us! Dad, please!"

There was a buzzer. The guards led me out of the room. "Time's up." I sucked in ragged breaths to stop crying. I was going to hold myself together.

I sat in my cell for another hour, until the door swung open again and I was led back into the visiting room. This time it really was Chiron, a lady I didn't know but looked suspiciously like Annabeth, a guy in a loud shirt holding a diet coke can, and a guy in a suit with a lightning-bolt shaped tie pin, and little umbrellas on the tie.

"Hi." I said. Luckily I didn't look like I had been crying. "Who the hell are you guys?" Chiron winced, making me wonder who these people were even more.

"I am Zeus, lord of the sky." The guy in the tie said. I gulped.

"I am Athena, goddess of wisdom and battle strategy, and Annabeth's mother."

"Annabeth's mom?" A tiny smile twitched onto the goddess's face.

"Yes, Annabeth is my daughter."

"I-I'm D-Dionysus." The man in the loud shirt hiccuped. I think he might've been drunk. "We're here to talk to you, Faith."

"My names not-"

"Ignore him." Athena cut in. "You're under arrest by the mortal police for murder. We'll get you out of jail, and free your friends, if you promise to be trained at camp with them. Ziggy and Sanya have already agreed to this deal, so it's in your best interest to agree as well."

"Felix," Chiron murmured. "You don't want to turn this down. Come to camp with the others."

If Zig and Sanya had already agreed, the deal was set. I didn't hesitate. "Okay." I said. "I'll go to camp with you." Zeus turned and nodded to the guards on their side of the glass barrier. The door on their side banged open, and Zig came in, leading Sanya by the hand. "Guys!"

"Felix! We're going to summer camp!" Sanya grinned, and so did Zig, but his smile was forced and he kept a death grip on Sanya's hand, eyes fixed on the gods.

"That's right, kid." I smiled at her through the glass. "We're headed to summer camp."

Zig just rolled his eyes.

 **AN: thanks for reading, everybody! See you next time! Please review and follow/favorite!**


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: thanks for reading this far! Please review/follow/favorite. I don't own PJO or HoO.**

 *****CAMP HALF BLOOD, THE NEXT MORNING*****

So it turns out that the demigods at camp were a little annoyed with me. And by "a little" I mean "a whole frickin' lot". Most people were giving me funny glances, and the four demigods who had tried to stop me leaving-Percy, Jason, Annabeth, and Piper-were glaring. But Sanya was cute enough that most of the girl's had forgiven me by midday.

"I'm Sanya, my daddy's Morpheus." She would say in a cute little voice, with her blond hair in pigtails and her brown eyes big, and that sweet smile on her face. All the Aphrodite girl's minus Drew and Piper were cooing over her. Piper because she was mad, Drew because she was hiding in the Aphrodite cabin with a swollen nose.

"I think Sy has a fan club." Zig mumbled to me. We were sitting in the grass under a tree, watching Sanya at the archery range. Most of the Apollo cabin (even a couple of guys) had volunteered teach her.

"Yeah, it's pretty funny." I grinned. "But she is pretty cute."

"Not you, too!" Zig moaned. "Seriously, Fix, Sanya's a fighter. You remember when that guy at the theme park told her she was too short to ride?" I cracked up.

"Yeah, right after we stole tickets to the theme park. I was pretty sure her head was going to _spontaneously combust._ " Zig laughed, but his smile quickly faded to a thoughtful frown. "What's up, man?"

"What did you do to piss off everybody here?" He asked. I winced.

"I might've yelled some pretty rude things at some people. Stolen a lot of stuff. And punched someone in the face."

"Wow, a threefer! Is that a new record? Three in as many hours?"

"Shut up!" I laughed, punching him in the arm. He pouted and rubbed it, but I ignored him. "It was all totally necessary to escape!"

"Punching someone in the face?"

"She started it."

"Yelling insults at people?"

"I wasn't thinking."

"Do you ever think?"

"Shut up!" I punched him again in the arm. "You know, you're nowhere near as funny as you think you are, seriously." He grinned.

"I refute your theory thus: I am even more funny then I think I am."

"They sound like two more Leo's." Piper's voice came from behind us. She, Annabeth, Percy, and Jason had just arrived. Hopefully not to try and kill us. Killing us is bad. "Felix, we need to talk to you." I winced.

"Yeah, I know. Zig, will you go check on Sanya? Make sure her fanclub isn't smothering her?" He glanced over at the archery range.  
"She looks fine." I glared at him. "I'll just go do that." He hopped to his feet. "Try not to die, Felix." He jogged towards the archery range and the ecstatic Sanya. At least she liked it here. I glanced up at the older demigods and wasn't sure whether this was good or bad.

"Hey, guys. What's up?" A stupid thing to say, yes, but there wasn't much else to be said.

"Chiron want's to talk to you." Percy said. He was the only one of them that didn't seem very mad. "But did you mean what you said? About not caring about Danny, or whatever it was he discovered?"

I hesitated. "I don't know. I didn't even really know Danny, but he died protecting me, trying to tell me some big secret. I'm not sure if I want anything to do with it."

"You might not get a choice. Prophecies are like that." Jason said, and Percy shot him a glare.

"I should go see Chiron." I said, and left them arguing.

 *****THE BIG HOUSE*****

Chiron didn't really seem mad. More tired, and a little exasperated. "You know, I've trained many heroes in my time. But never one quite like you."

"Is that a good thing?" I asked nervously.

"I am not entirely sure, yet."

"Okay?" He gave me a tired but warm smile.

"I don't mean to say that you're not a very talented, Felix. You're a daughter of a minor goddess, but quite skilled with the sword and unusually brave and determined. And you work well with the other two, Zig and Sanya. I think you will become a great hero one day." I was about to cut in with a grin and a sarcastic comment, when he glared at me and said, "I said one day."

"Aye, aye, cap'n!" I saluted and walked backwards along the porch. "I'm good to go?"

"Just one thing, Felix." Chiron said, and I stopped. He was resting one hand on the railing, head turned to frown out at the camp.

"Yes?"

"Keep yourself and your friends out of trouble, and out of the woods. Sanya seems to be happy here already, but Zig, as a son of Alastor, may have more trouble finding a place here." I tensed. Was he saying Zig couldn't stay?

"What do you mean?" I demanded. "There's nothing wrong with Zig."

"Not Zig. But his powers are-" He hesitated. "Unsettling."

I bit my lip, but nodded. "I know they can be scary, but he's in control of them. All he does is make people mad, it's not that big a thing. He makes people angry at the people they care about. No worse then a bad report card."

"Don't worry, Chiron. We'll keep them out of trouble." I jumped-it was Asher, with Faust waiting on the porch steps. Asher seemed angry with me, but Faust was smiling and waving at passing satyrs on the lawn. I wondered how Asher could stand her positivity all the time. It might drive me nuts. "Come on, Felix."

Asher led me to Faust, who grinned and hugged me. "You're back! We got worried when we woke up and you were gone!" Asher rolled his eyes, but he was obviously trying not to smile. I had to admit, it was kind of nice to have siblings.

"So, you're pretty much totally in trouble." Asher said, slinging his arm around my shoulders. Faust hopped along ahead of us, beaming at everyone we passed. "You know, for breaking Drew's nose."

"And for sneaking out." Faust added.

"And for stealing weapons and stuff." Asher said, poking Faust. "You forgot that."

"And for taking the drachmas out of the till in the store." Faust giggled.

"Looks like we've got a troublemaker!" Asher was grinning now, too. "Looks like you're the black sheep of the Tyche family, kid!" They seemed to find this pretty funny. They took turns teasing me all the way to the archery range, where Zig and Sanya were having a lot of fun with the bow and arrows. Sanya's fanclub was gone, probably scared away by Zig.

"Will you introduce me?" Faust gasped, staring moon-eyed at Zig. He had taken his hoodie off, showing his buff arms. "What's his name? How old is he? Is he-" She gave me a suspicious look. "He's not your boyfriend, right?"

"No," I snorted. "Don't worry. I'm introducing both of you. My siblings should meet my friends, especially since they're going to be going here with me.

"You mean he's _staying?_ " Faust giggled. "So it wouldn't even have to be long-distance!"

"Seriously." I glared at her. "Stop doing that."

I led Asher and faust over to my friends. "Guys, these are my siblings. Other children of Tyche. This is Faust and Asher. Sibs, this is Zig and Sanya." Everybody met everybody else, and then Asher tried to show Zig how to shoot a bow properly, though ended up nearly getting shot. Clearly bows aren't one of his strong suits.

While Zig apologized and both Faust and Asher laughed so hard they nearly started crying, Sanya tugged at my hand.

"Felix?"

"Yeah, kiddo?" I crouched next to her. "What's up?" Sanya hesitated, tugging on one of her pigtails.

"Are we really staying here?" She asked. I didn't know what to tell her.

"I thought you liked it here."

"I do, but I like the city better. I like it when it's you and me and Zig. How long are we going to stay here?" I bit my lip, mind racing. I didn't know what to tell Sanya-I didn't want to lie to her, but I knew we would be here for a while.

"I don't know, kiddo. I think we'll be here for a while. We made a deal with the gods and Chiron that we would come here if they got us out of jail. If we leave now, we'll be split up."

"They'd split us up?" Sanya asked, brown eyes scared. "They can't do that!" She fell forward and wrapped her arms around my stomach.

"I know." I said, hugging her as well. I set my jaw and tensed my shoulders so I wouldn't cry. "I know, and I won't let them send you away. They won't split us up. You and Zig and I are a family. We'll stay together." I looked over at where Faust was chattering away to Zig. I saw Zig's cute blush and the way Faust's constant smile only showed her back teeth when she was really truly happy. I saw Asher firing arrows at the target, most of them hitting the center. I saw the people that I cared about, and I knew that I wouldn't be okay if I lost any of them, even Faust or Asher, who I had just met. I looked down at Sanya, with her blond pigtails and her pink cowboy boots, needing me to reassure her. "I swear it on the river Styx."

 **AN: thanks for reading. Please review or favorite/follow.**


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: I don't own PJO or HoO.**

 *****THE PIER, CAMP HALF-BLOOD, THREE DAYS LATER*****

"How are you _doing_ this?" Connor groaned.

"They must be cheating." Travis decided. Or it could've been the other way around-I have a hard time telling them apart.

"Maybe there's cards up their sleeves." I grinned and pulled on the strap of my tank top.

"Or under the table." We were sitting on the end of the pier, cards and a small stack of drachmas in between us.

"Sorry, fellas," Faust giggled. "None of the above. Read 'em and weep." She tossed an eight onto the pile of cards in the middle of the table. "I love crazy eights!" I laughed at the stunned looks on the Stoll's faces. Even Percy was surprised.

Zig, who was sitting to one side and reading a book (by which I mean glaring at a book), looked up. "Told you, guys. Never play against a daughter of Tyche. And this time there's two of them."

"Why didn't we listen?" Percy groaned. "Can I give up?"

"Sorry, Jackson, the pot says no. I'm playing to win, here." I grinned.

"We're playing crazy eights." He pointed out.

"You can play to win at crazy eights." I pretended to pout. Zig's mouth twitched into a smile. I knew he was only pretending to read-he was dyslexic. "Travis, it's your turn."

"I'm Connor!"

"Sorry." I frowned. "Have you ever considered wearing nametags?"

We played fast. Percy, then Connor, then Travis fell too far behind to win. Faust and I kept drawing good hands, impossible eights, staring at each other's poker faces. Finally, even Faust surrendered, and I won by a landslide. The pot was twenty drachma, but I saw Travis and Connor sneaking coins up their sleeves so they would have to pay less. I didn't call them on it-it was nice to be making new friends.

I hadn't been surprised when Percy asked to join the game. Three days ago, when I'd first come to camp with Zig and Sanya, he and the other older demigods hadn't wanted anything to do with the three of us. Then suddenly, they'd been all friendly with smiles and apologies. It had started right after going to the archery range with my sibs, and I made my promise to Sanya. I wondered if they had overheard our conversation, but that was silly. I didn't think even they would be paranoid enough to follow me around.

As the others walked away, I turned my face to the sun and closed my eyes, feeling the sun on my face. I turned and looked around at the camp, trying to tell what it was.

"Felix?" It was Annabeth. "Are you okay? Saw you out here, and you looked really… worried."

"I have a bad feeling." I said. "Somethings wrong. Something just seems…." I frowned, trying to put a finger on it. "Unlucky."

Annabeth put a hand on my shoulder. "You're probably just adjusting to camp. I'm sure everythings fine." But I could see the gears turning in her head.

"No, its not. I can feel it. Something bad is happening. The other Tyche kids have felt it, too. Look, look at that grass." Annabeth turned and looked where I pointed.

"I'm looking…"

"It's not green enough. The sky isn't blue enough. The sun isn't bright enough, the water isn't dark enough-something big is wrong. I can _feel_ it. Can't you?" Annabeth shook her head.

"I have to go talk to Chiron, okay? But I'm sure everythings fine." Annabeth jogged away, a look of worried thought on her face. Probably not a good sign. I wondered if she knew something. I wondered if she would even tell me if she did.

I brushed those thoughts aside and stuffed my winnings in one pocket, my deck of cards in the other pocket, where I kept my coin. I didn't know why I kept that stupid coin around-it was just a silly piece of metal from someone I hated. But sometimes I just got feelings about things. I would add the coin and cards to my collection back at the cabin.

I jogged through camp, and pushed open the door of the small cozy Tyche cabin. I crouched and reached under my bed, pulling out the satchel that I had stolen from the camp store when I ran away. I flipped the top open and poured the contents out on the floor. I knew I was safe-Asher and Faust would be in the pegasi stables, Zig would be chugging his ritualistic mid-day milkshake, and Sanya was in the Aphrodite cabin getting a haircut.

The items I had collected weren't connected in any way at first glance.

There was my coin and the pack of cards, some drachma and roman denarii, poker chips, a pin in the shape of a horse shoe, a pair of dice, and a four leaf clover I had found in the woods. I wasn't sure why these items, these in particular, seemed special. I was just- _drawn_ to them. Like they were important. Needed.

I fingered each of the items in turn, pinching them between thumb and pointer. When I closed my eyes, I could see a faint glow emanating from the items, but only through my eyelids. As soon as I opened my eyes, the glow was gone.

"What do you mean?" I murmured. "Why you?"

I jumped as someone turned the doorknob on the front door. I swept my collection into the satchel and slid it under the bed just as the door opened. It was Zig, looking miserable, confused, and like he could use a little luck.

"What's up, man?" I asked. "Dining pavilion not have chocolate shakes left?"

"The plates and cups here are magic." He mumbled. "That's not it."

"Then what's wrong?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Help me find Faust and Asher. The children of Tyche need to come to the big house. Now." Then he was out the door already. I scrambled to my feet and threw the door open. Asher and Faust were in the stables. I sprinted through camp, the people I passed turning to stare as I ran as fast as I could, skidded around a corner into the stables, and stopped an inch before slamming into Asher.

"Guys! All children of Tyche are being called to the big house. Come on!" I turned and ran, knowing that they were exchanging a glance, then following. This time all three of us flew through camp.

We bowled over Nyssa, from the Hephaestus cabin, and she shouted, "Where's the fire?" But none of us stopped. I think we all knew already-why else would Chiron only call for children of Tyche? Why else did we all have a feeling in the pits of our stomachs that something was terribly awfully wrong?

I shot up the steps of the big house and slammed full-tilt into the door, nearly knocking it off its hinges. It banged open and we raced inside, nearly running into Chiron. "What's going on?" I panted. "Zig-Zig-" I bent over double and gasped for breath. "Running."

"We heard you wanted to see us. What's wrong? It's-it's the missing luck, isn't it?" Asher asked, eyes flashing. Faust glanced at him, and I bit the inside of my cheek. We knew it might be the truth, but we were scared of it.

"Annabeth has just told me what Felix said about the unluckiness around the camp of late." Chiron said, rubbing one hoof on the floor, nervously. "You say the luck is missing from the camp?"

"Yes, sir." Faust said. Her dimples were still there, but she wasn't properly smiling anymore. "It's like something stole it. Do you know what's going on? We'd love to know, seriously."

"I have just gotten word from Olympus." Chiron said carefully. "Tyche is missing."

I gagged. I didn't really like my mom, and I couldn't pretend I hadn't wished bad things on her in my worst moments, but I hadn't seen that coming.

"What do you mean, _missing?_ " Asher was shouting. "How can a goddess be _missing?_ "

"Mom is…" Faust looked like she'd been slapped. She had finally stopped smiling. "Mom's…"

"Missing, yes." Chiron said.

I was surprised by my siblings reactions. I didn't even know how to feel-like maybe it was unfortunate and tragic, but I wasn't going to start crying over it. That might seem heartless, but this was the woman who disappeared for thirteen years then sent me a letter and a dime and expected it to be all better. I wasn't really a fan.

"Then call a quest! Get a prophecy! Send somebody to find her! One of the seven could go, they could find her! Do you know how long she's been missing?"

"No." Chiron grimaced. "As a minor goddess, nobody noticed that she was missing until today, when the Olympians received a ransom note." That stung. If a minor goddess wasn't important, what did that mean for her kids? But I knew he hadn't meant it like that.

"Call the head counselors! Someone needs to find her!" Asher was still shouting.

"I already have." Chiron sighed. "Come on."

The head counselors were seated around the ping-pong table. Travis was spraying cheeze-wiz into Percy's mouth. Annabeth, next to him, was rolling her eyes as she glanced through an architecture book, mumbling, "Wrong. Wrong. Who wrote this?" Lou Ellen was arguing with Clarisse, Leo was talking and both Piper and Jason were cracking up at whatever he was saying. Zig was here, as the only child of Alastor, but Sanya wasn't. An older boy with reddish hair and brown eyes was there for the Morpheus cabin.

Everyone quieted when Asher, Faust, and I walked in. Zig shot me a questioning look, but I shook my head slightly.

"Everyone-" Chiron said, his voice low and serious. "I have received a message from Olympus." The campers glanced at each other nervously.

"Please don't tell me there's another prophecy." Percy moaned, sitting forward in his chair. Somehow he had managed to swallow all that cheeze-wiz. "Seriously, I can't take another prophecy."

"It's not a prophecy." I snapped. All eyes turned to me. "It's worse."

"Thank you for that, Felix. Would you three please sit down. I will explain this." Chiron said. Faust latched onto my wrist and pulled me with them to our seats. I glared at Chiron, but I knew it wasn't his fault. "As Felix stated, this is quite possibly worse then a prophecy. A goddess is missing."

"Which one?" Clarisse asked. The other demigods were nervous, murmuring to each other, fear written on their faces. Chiron waited for them to silence to keep talking.

"Tyche, the goddess of chance, giver of good and ill luck, ruler of province, lady of fortune." Chiron said. "We don't know how long she's been missing-"

"By that he means minor goddesses aren't important enough to be found missing until they get a ransom note." Asher muttered bitterly. Chiron shot him a look, and he clamped his mouth shut.

"We don't know who took lady Tyche, but I believe another quest must be called."

"Why should we?" Drew asked. "We've had plenty of quests. Besides, how much can it matter if some unimportant goddess goes on vacation?" She glanced at me and my siblings. "No offense, of course."

I glared at her. "Look buddy, just because you're a daughter of one of the big bads doesn't mean you can go around dissing all the others, so keep your trap shut or I get my duct tape." She reddened.

"I didn't mean-"

Faust threw her hands in the air and rolled her eyes. "Of course not! You just meant the _nice_ kind of unimportant!"

"How exactly was that not offensive, Drew?" Asher added. Drew was clearly no match for all three children of Tyche working together.

"Why are you even here, Drew?" I demanded. "You're not the head counselor of Aphrodite cabin, that's Piper. So why? And what happened to your nose, it looks like someone totally awesome finally got sick of you." Now we were getting angry looks from all around the table (though nothing too bad from the girl's, who didn't seem to like Drew much better then we did, though several boys looked like they were about to be Drews-knights-in-shining-armor and save her from the evil children of the AWOL goddess). And why shouldn't we defend ourselves and our mom?

Chiron cleared his throat. "Moving on. A quest. We'll need a prophecy to tell us who should go."

"But there's no more prophecies." Annabeth said, snapping her book shut. "Remember?"

"But we need a prophecy to find Tyche." Asher said. "Isn't there any way to get a prophecy without using the oracle?" Nobody really seemed sure.

"If we don't have a prophecy, we'll have to decide who goes ourselves. Do we have any volunteers?" Zig, Asher, Faust, and I all shot our hands up. "A quest only calls for three-but I guess that stopped applying a while ago." Chiron conceded.

"Should we really send three children of Tyche?" Piper asked. When we glared at her, she blushed. "I mean, if something happens to Tyche, won't they be affected?" Most people looked to either Chiron or Annabeth for the answer.

"Possibly." Annabeth said thoughtfully. "That's a good thought, Piper. Guys, would you list the abilities you've inherited from Tyche?"

"Um, we always win at games of chance," Asher said, ticking things off on his fingers. "We can give other people bad luck, make bad things happen to them. If we really try, we can give good luck as well. But lately we've had-" Asher glanced at Faust and I, and we both nodded. "Feelings about things. Like certain objects, or people, or places."

"What do you mean by feelings?" Chiron asked.

"Like maybe if somethings important, or if it's bad or good or needed." Faust explained.

"But we didn't used to be able to do that." I said. "Just started a few days ago. Probably around the time Tyche was-kidnapped? Goddessnapped? Is that even a word?" Asher gave me a look like, _really? Now?_. I quickly got back on track. "Anyway, it's a new thing. It must have something to do with Tyche going missing."

"Maybe she's trying to tell you something!" Travis said excitedly. "That would make sense, wouldn't it? She knew someone was coming for her, so she tried to send her kids a message! Like in that movie with that guy-"

"Oh yeah! That movie with the guy-" He and a couple other guys started babbling away, until Chiron raised a hand and they silenced.

"That does make sense." Annabeth nodded. "You said you could tell when somethings important? Can you find all the important objects? Maybe together they're giving you a message. Some sort of clue as to how to find Tyche."

 **AN: please leave a review or favorite/follow.**


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: I don't own PJO or HoO. Sorry it's been forever since I've updated, but I have a bunch of other stories I've been working on. Please review/favorite/follow.**

Asher and Faust moved about the cabin, while I reached under my bunk and pulled out my satchel. "These are all the things I've collected." Asher grinned and reached under the mattress on his bunk and pulled out a pillowcase. Faust giggled and held up a shoebox full of stuff. "You guys, too?"

"We should've worked together on this. Would've been faster." Asher sighed.

"We are now." Faust said. "Come on guys, it'll be easier to work at a table." We walked together to the dining pavilion and dumped our hiding places out on the Tyche table. "Wow, look at this junk."

Spread on the table was: my coin and the pack of cards, some drachma and roman denarii, poker chips, a pin in the shape of a horse shoe, a pair of dice, a four leaf clover, a piece of red cloth, the title page of a book, leaves, a rabbit's foot charm, a wishbone, a postcard, a white swan feather, and a dreamcatcher.

"Okay," Asher said, staring at the random objects. "What. The hades. Does this stuff have anything to do with anything?"

"Language!" Faust swatted him on the shoulder.

"So this is all the stuff we were pulled to," I said, sorting through the objects. "I'm confused. I mean most of this stuff-the four leaf clover, the rabbit's foot, the horse shoe-they all mean luck, right?"

"The color red is a lucky color in China." Someone behind me said. I jumped. It was Annabeth, with Zig and Sanya. "We came to help."

They sat down at the table, too. "So all of this stuff is some sort of symbol of luck?" Sanya asked. "What about this?" She held up the title page from a book. I frowned at it. The words were in fancy type, and hard to read, but I finally figured out: _The Meaning Of Prosperity, by Tyche Goddess_.

"Mom wrote a book?" Faust asked.

"Apparently." Annabeth said. "Have any of you read it?"

"No." Asher, Faust, and I all said at the same time. "I just found a book someone left lying around and the first page seemed really important." Asher shrugged. "I was in a hurry, I didn't get a chance to find the book again."

"So that's about luck, too," Zig said, but he was studying the picture on the post card. "But what about this? It's just a picture of some museum in Chicago, down in Illinois. Why would this be important?" I tugged on the postcard and pulled it away. It was a picture of a big building with greek columns, and huge colorful banners out front with pictures of historical events and animals and ancient egyptian mummies and things like that.

"It is kind of ancient greeky." Faust said, peering over my shoulder. "I found that one. I have a really bad feeling about it."

"So do I." Asher said, and I nodded. It almost felt toxic in my hand, and I had to resist the urge to throw it into the lake.

"Important, too, though." I said. "Maybe this museum, the-" I glanced at the back of the post card. "Field Museum, in Chicago, Illinois, is where Tyche is. That's the only reason it could be so important and so really really bad, right?"

"I guess so." Annabeth said. "When you guys go on your quest, you should head there. But we have to figure out why the rest of these are important."

"Maybe mom is just trying to help us." Asher said. "I met her once, and she puts _way_ too much value on luck. She acts like skills are unimportant, luck is the only thing that helps you win or lose. This might just be her way of saying we should do well." The others weren't convinced, and I wasn't either. There was more to it then the "Tyche's a weirdo" theory.

"There could be a secret message in them." Sanya said. "When you put them all together in the right way. Haven't you read the Maze Runner?"

"Didn't I tell you not to read that?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Zig said I could."

"Way to throw me under the bus, short pants." Zig grumbled.

We spent the entire rest of the day trying to figure out what the message could be. We tried to find invisible ink on the book's title page. We checked the poker chips and coins for any unusual symbols. We rolled the dice a dozen times, glared at every single card, and even broke the wishbone. Nothing helped.

"We should just head there." Zig said finally, tapping the postcard. "Maybe the rest of this stuff will make sense when we get there."

Annabeth frowned, and I got the feeling it wasn't that simple. But with all the time we wasted, things would be getting worse. We had to find Tyche before it was too late.

"Yeah, maybe!" Faust said happily. "You should take these with you, and you'll know when you know, right?"

I needed to get away from Faust's optimism, so I agreed. Zig, Asher, and I went to bed early that night. We left at sunbreak the next morning. Sanya and Faust got up early as well, to see us off.

As we were about to go, Sanya stopped me at the top of half-blood hill. "Will you come back?" She asked.

I hesitated. I didn't want to tell her I wasn't sure, but I didn't want to lie. I lied. "Of course. Everythings going to be okay, Sy. Zig and I will come home, and everything will be okay."

"We can be a family again?"

"Yes. I promise."

Sanya beamed at me, and I turned to face a skeptical Zig and Asher as she skipped down the hill towards camp. "Don't say it! I know. Let's just go."

Neither of them argued.


End file.
